The top story on the New Hampshire Right this morning (hinted at here by Groksterette Susan Olson) is news that Gun Manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co., which has a large facility in the Granite State, will be expanding someplace other than New Hampshire.
Company President Michael O. Fifer told shareholders at their annual meeting in May that the $30 million expansion would not be in New England.
…
The company had a long list of factors, including a preference for a right-to-work state, where workers cannot be required to pay union dues if they choose not to join one. “Right-to-work state was one of our criteria,” Reed said.
The siren song has risen. If only we had passed Right to Work. We had the opportunity. Over on Facebook NH House Rep Bill O’Brien, the NH House Speaker during our last best opportunity to pass it here, observes correctly that…
Despite Legislative Democrats’ mantra that no business considers right to work laws in coming to a state or staying in a state and despite their repeating that mantra incessantly when those legislators were slavishly voting to uphold Gov. Lynch’s veto of Right to Work Legislation, here’s direct evidence, and a demonstrable loss of great manufacturing jobs in New Hampshire,
But Democrats are not why we failed to pass Right to Work. Democrats were not the reason why we failed to override the Lynch veto. The override difference from Yea’s to Nay’s was only 10 votes. If six of those ten voted the other way, New Hampshire would have become a Right to Work state. And forty-one ‘Republicans’ voted against overriding the veto.
Forty-one. Republicans. Fifteen percent of the Republicans that voted voted against the party platform on this issue. Only forty voted against the bill the first time it passed. We should have had room to spare.
Not one single Democrat voted to override the veto. Not one.
So while we pound our chests in fury over the likely loss of 500-700 shiny new manufacturing jobs for New Hampshire, in an industry that has experienced exponential growth, it is not registered-elected Democrats who bear the blame in the end. They do not bear blame because Democrats don’t care about jobs if it costs them political power. Right to Work is a threat to that power. The Democrat vote demonstrates that power at work. It was Republicans who voted against it, elected (wink-wink) based on a party platform that supports Right to Work, that are responsible.
It is the NH-GOP leadership who over (at least the past decade) will happily try to intimidate conservatives but refuse to bring any weight to bear on the RINO’s in the party, only a half dozen to a dozen of whom would have won us the day on that RTW veto override vote. The same state party leadership that continues to bash principled platform conservatives for objecting to RINO’s on issues like Right to Work, while making excuses for RINO’s who are worth more to party leadership than solid Republican votes in the New Hampshire House.
Democrats are wrong on RTW, as they are on a great many things, but as a party they admit to opposing it. They voted their party line. Republicans have no such cover. We had this won. It was in our platform. We had more than enough “elected Republicans” in office. We were as close as we may ever be to becoming a Right to Work state. And the NH-GOP blew it. Chairman Wayne MacDonald, the EC, they all blew it. And while Democrats are wrong, I blame the Republican state party leadership for refusing to provide enough back up to get this done.
Yes, there are issues where there is room for dissent. I proudly tolerate the 80-20 rule. But Union power ensures and secures Democrat campaigns, provides foot soldiers, money, and influence over a wide range of areas and issues, all of the left leaning. And Public sector unions are a scourge on taxpayers. This is not an issue where there is or should be room for dissent.
Here are the names of every “republican” who voted against their own platform on Right to Work. Because… some of them are still in office.
House Rep | Party | County | District | Vote |
Bolster, Peter | Republican | Belknap | 5 | Nay |
Brown, Julie | Republican | Strafford | 1 | Nay |
Buxton, Michael | Republican | Hillsborough | 24 | Nay |
Chirichiello, Brian | Republican | Rockingham | 6 | Nay |
Copeland, Timothy | Republican | Rockingham | 19 | Nay |
Day, Russell | Republican | Hillsborough | 7 | Nay |
Devine, James | Republican | Rockingham | 4 | Nay |
Dowling, Patricia | Republican | Rockingham | 5 | Nay |
Dwinell, Richard | Republican | Cheshire | 5 | Nay |
Emerson, Susan | Republican | Cheshire | 11 | Nay |
Hopper, Gary | Republican | Hillsborough | 2 | Nay |
Janvrin, Kevin | Republican | Rockingham | 14 | Nay |
Katsakiores, Phyllis | Republican | Rockingham | 5 | Nay |
Kidder, David | Republican | Merrimack | 5 | Nay |
Knox, J. David | Republican | Carroll | 4 | Nay |
Ladd, Rick | Republican | Grafton | 4 | Nay |
Laware, Thomas | Republican | Sullivan | 5 | Nay |
Lockwood, Priscilla | Republican | Merrimack | 9 | Nay |
McCarthy, Michael | Republican | Hillsborough | 29 | Nay |
McKinney, Betsy | Republican | Rockingham | 5 | Nay |
Messier, Irene | Republican | Hillsborough | 17 | Nay |
Millham, Alida | Republican | Belknap | 5 | Nay |
Pepino, Leo | Republican | Hillsborough | 11 | Nay |
Perkins, Amy | Republican | Rockingham | 20 | Nay |
Perkins, Lawrence | Republican | Rockingham | 20 | Nay |
Pilliod, James | Republican | Belknap | 5 | Nay |
Proulx, Mark | Republican | Hillsborough | 15 | Nay |
Quandt, Marshall | Republican | Rockingham | 13 | Nay |
Quandt, Matt | Republican | Rockingham | 13 | Nay |
Remick, William | Republican | Coos | 2 | Nay |
Richardson, Herbert | Republican | Coos | 4 | Nay |
Robbins, David | Republican | Hillsborough | 26 | Nay |
Sapareto, Frank | Republican | Rockingham | 6 | Nay |
St. Cyr, Jeffrey | Republican | Belknap | 5 | Nay |
Stroud, Kathleen | Republican | Hillsborough | 21 | Nay |
Terrio, Ross | Republican | Hillsborough | 14 | Nay |
Tholl, John | Republican | Coos | 2 | Nay |
Tremblay, Marc | Republican | Coos | 4 | Nay |
Waddell, James | Republican | Rockingham | 15 | Nay |
Webb, James | Republican | Rockingham | 6 | Nay |
Welch, David | Republican | Rockingham | 8 | Nay |